Rookie wideout Tyms runs toward future

49ers Brutal past helped shape receiver's work ethic

Updated 11:42 pm, Wednesday, August 15, 2012

49ers wide receiver Brian Tyms had one catch for 12 yards in his preseason debut against Minnesota.

49ers wide receiver Brian Tyms had one catch for 12 yards in his preseason debut against Minnesota.

Photo: Paul Sakuma, ASSOCIATED PRESS

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Brian Tyms' college coach called him his hardest worker in 30-plus years.

Brian Tyms' college coach called him his hardest worker in 30-plus years.

Photo: Paul Sakuma, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Rookie wideout Tyms runs toward future

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After he'd lived in four group homes, been kicked out of the house by his foster family and spent two months sleeping in a car, 49ers rookie wide receiver Brian Tyms finally found an oasis when he arrived at Florida A&M three years ago.

After living a nightmare, he was suddenly surrounded by people - professors and coaches - paid to help him realize his dreams.

On Wednesday, Florida A&M wide receivers coach Steven Jerry recalled driving by the football facility and seeing a solitary figure who seemingly never left campus. It would be Tyms lugging a sled, or running routes through cones - a young man with an NFL body and sprinter's speed determined to distance himself from his painful past.

"He was so happy to be a college student because the alternative was so bad," Jerry said. "You could tell there was a genuine appreciation for everything, every day. He ate, slept and breathed football and school for three years, and now it's paid off for him."

Tyms, 23, who bounded back to the huddle after his lone reception in Friday's preseason opener against Minnesota, can see a bright future after nearly two decades of darkness. The toll has included the deaths of both drug-addled, physically abusive biological parents and a 13-year separation from his beloved half-sister.

At 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, he possesses prototypical size for a pro wide receiver and eye-popping athleticism. At Florida A&M's pro day, he had a 38.5-inch vertical jump, which would have ranked tied for fifth among wide receivers at the NFL combine. His time in the 20-yard shuttle (3.93 seconds) would have tied for second and his 40-yard-dash clocking (4.40) would have ranked third.

Undeveloped talent

So why, exactly, wasn't he drafted? Well, he's barely played.

He didn't wear shoulder pads until his senior year at Dillard High in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and spent two years at Tallahassee (Fla.) Community College, which doesn't have a football program. After a redshirt season at Florida A&M, he played about 10 snaps a game as a junior and had seven catches. He collected 38 receptions for 538 yards as a senior while still learning the nuances of the position.

"It was like bringing a baby into the world," Tyms said of his redshirt season. "The only thing I knew how to do was go deep. That was it. I could run past somebody and jump up and grab a ball. They told me to run a go and I'm like 'OK, I'm on my horse.' But anything else where I had to fit inside a coverage, slip under somebody ..."

Then there was the matter of his on-field aggression, a product of his past. While blocking a cornerback, Tyms suddenly would become enraged, giving stunned teammates everything from head-butts to right hooks.

Said Tyms: "Everyone would look at me like, 'What's wrong with this kid?' "

At 7, his mother, Jada Tyms, who had split with his biological father, hit him in a store and the incident was reported. His half-sister, Alysha Bernett, went to live with a grandfather and Tyms began his odyssey in group homes and foster care.

After three years in group homes, his biological dad, Kenneth Stephens, was granted custody, but the arrangement in Seattle lasted less than two years. Deep into alcoholism, Stephens and Brian, then about 11, got into a physical altercation and his dad began choking him. A neighbor who heard Brian's screaming called the police and he went to another group home.

At 12, he was placed with Peter and Benita Pender, foster parents who lived near Fort Lauderdale. After six years of relative tranquillity, Tyms, who concedes his behavior was the issue, was kicked out after he graduated from high school. He lived for two months in a 1994 Lexus with a bag of clothes in the backseat and worked at a McDonald's. The experience inspired change: He fled his bad influences in Fort Lauderdale and continued his education by enrolling at Tallahassee Community College.

Looking for an opening

In a new town, then 19 years old, Tyms embraced a new motto. On his bedroom ceiling, he tacked a message he'd scrawled on a piece of paper that greeted him each morning: Be the best you can possibly be today.

"I didn't want to be upset about what happened yesterday or worry about what was going to happen tomorrow," Tyms said.

During his final semester at TCC, Tyms arranged a visit with Florida A&M head coach Joe Taylor and asked him for a chance to walk on to the football team. Taylor was impressed by Tyms' excellent community college transcript and granted his request after determining he hadn't been in legal trouble.

In return for the opportunity, Tyms became what Taylor terms the hardest-working player he has had in a career that has spanned more than 30 years.

"I just kept grinding and I wasn't going to quit because I didn't have anything else to do," Tyms said. "At least for a couple years, I wanted to enjoy a good dream. That's what happened. I just wanted it so badly."

Today, Tyms has a college degree, a reconciled relationship with his foster parents and a close friendship with his half-sister, Alysha, who reconnected with him on Facebook three years ago.

On the field, the undrafted rookie on a team loaded with wide receivers realizes his current NFL residence could be temporary. Tyms, however, is unfazed by such uncertainty.

Call it a gift from his nightmare childhood: He believes he'll always find a home, somewhere.

"If it's not here with the 49ers, God forbid, I'll just go somewhere else," Tyms said. "My work ethic is going to follow me. It's never going to stop."

Roster moves: The 49ers signed linebacker Ikaika Alama-Francis, a five-year veteran who was a second-round pick of the Lions in 2007. Alama-Francis, who has 24 tackles and one sack in his career, was released by the Dolphins on March 13. To make room on the roster, the 49ers waived tight end Gijon Robinson, whom they had signed Sunday.

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